Its always great to see the fishing season kicking off in mid February, while the usual diehards take great care in donning their best gear to venture out on that all important opening day, some of us more reserved or cold weather conscious anglers (fair weather fishers) are still putting the final touches on the boats and checking gear. Then comes the day of well anticipated Mayfly, ready to get some well earned flyfishing and the native technique of dapping get off to a frenzied start. Initially in early 2022 April time frame the buzzer fishing went very well and some fine fish landed during the 2 day competition. Followed soon after by one day of flyfishing only Saturday 7th May and a Sunday 8th Dapping competitions, well put together by the Oughterard Anglers Association. See results here @ https://www.facebook.com/OughterardAnglersAssociation. There are mixed reviews on how the Mayfly fishing went this year, but I am glad to share my own experiences with some very keen seasoned and first timers to the famous Mayfly Lough Corrib fishing. Early on in the season April or so, there were several good hatches of Mayfly, it was extremely productive following drifting mayflies with a artificial mayfly, dry flying, this generated several rises and hook ups. Later as we progressed into the late April hatch and on to mid May fishing the weather was very uncooperative with severe winds for weeks crossing and coming from every direction scattering the emerging Mayfly to every corner of Ireland except where we needed them to be. If you worked hard they could be found, but the dap seemed to be slow. Persistence in finding a few dozen flies earlier in May was productive and a good weigh in at the weekend comp proved this. Myself and Derek C. turning in three of the four fish limit, however well bested by more successful boats. The following week I was out again with John Mac. backing up tigers and dapping away as we fished the Jimmy D & Jimmy M. memorial competitions, eventually electing to release our catches and head in for a hard earned cold one, in one of the local establishments. Strangely, the next couple of weeks, I met a few visiting anglers of whom both groups were very inquisitive of where the mayfly were, I happily went and caught around couple of dozen in late May handing them out to happy anglers, a group from the North, a group from Germany and some of my new residents here at the https://www.riverbendlodge.ie B&B from France, both Anais J. and Sylvain F. were very happy & eager to learn the technique of collecting mayflies for their very first day on the lake. Thankfully both caught a fish a piece casting dry flies and but never perfected the “DAP” technique feeding several rising trout the hard collected Mayfly throughout the day. In case anyone asks there are still fresh Mayflies emerging in June and I was able to find two dozen on the Sunday of the June bank holiday weekend. For more information on other fisheries and information https://fishinginireland.info/ provides some key information on the fishing and status of lakes and rivers in Ireland.